Salo to be re-released by Criterion (Criterion thread)(or, Art Film Jackassery)

[schild]

Totally off topic from the rest of the threads. Salo is finally being re-released. It's a horrible film. Not in the quality sense, but rather the content. For those of you obsessive about DVDs, this has been the crown jewel of a collection since it went out of print. And now we can buy it, finally! It'll look nice next to my Silence of the Lambs, Hard-Boiled, OOP Seven Samurai (with extras), and other Criterion OOP stuff. Though it's not OOP now! And it's got a whole disc of extras! ROCK!

That is all.

Also, for those wondering, this is the kind of movie you watch ONCE.

http://criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=17

Edit: Also, did anyone pick up Jubilee? How's the transfer? Worth picking up?

[caladein]

I like how this thread title's evolved.

[schild]

Well, I tried making it more and more broad. Like a Criterion re-release. But wait, there's more! Also, I hit the character limit. 

[Margalis]

I didn't realize you were a film nerd. I'm a film nerd in training.

[schild]

I'm beyond a film nerd. I have a minor in Film History.

Edit: And now we know why I'm such a pompous dick about music, video and games. I had a radio show at UMD while I was a fine arts major with a minor in film history while running a gaming website. Gee. What an attractive combination.

[ahoythematey]

Never heard of it.  Is it a "watch only once" similar to Man Bites Dog, where you just cannot stop watching even if you want to, or something else?  I love movies like that.

EDIT: to further explanation, I love a lot of french and avant-garde cinema that isn't trying to sell itself based on the fact that it is french and/or avant-garde.

Ugh, film snobs are a fickle bunch, I'm having a real hard time figuring out what I mean and I just lost at poker night.

EDIT++ i'm also kind of drunk fuck sailor jerry the sailing bitch

The 400 blows is amazing and more filmmakers of today need to study it.

[schild]

Heh. Halfway through reading your post I thought, maybe he would like The 400 Blows. By the end of your post you'd already mentioned it.

[stray]

Man Bites Dog is definitely worth watching more than once.

I don't know shit about modern French films, but the old stuff is cool (including 400 blows). I don't think it was ever sold as "avant garde" or anything. Most of those guys from the 60's were just noir and hitchcock freaks. It was a homage to American film. Especially Godard and Melville.

[edit] This be my favorite Criterion "re-release":

[Abagadro]

Man, I remember watching Man Bites Dog in college.  Brutal flick but I love when they run into the other film crew. Cracks me up every time.

[schild]

Le Samourai never went out of print I thought.

Salo was $200-$400 depending on the quality of the copy. I've been trying to track one down for years. I still want an original, but I bet the price drops to 25% of what it used to be and of course I'll pick up the current one.

[stray]

I couldn't find it though for the longest time. Just an old VHS at a local library. And the same VHS online, before the criterion came out.

[schild]

Well, it's the kind of movie only Criterion would have the balls to do justice. That said, when I say re-release I mean Criterion released it once, it went OOP, and then they re-released it. Something they do very rarely except for a few french movies and versions missing things - like Seven Samurai.

Original release:

- Optimal image quality: Dual-layer edition

- Audio commentary by Japanese film expert Michael Jeck

- Restored picture and sound

- Original US theatrical trailer

- Restoration demonstration

Later release:

- Optimal image quality: Dual-layer edition

- Audio commentary by Japanese film expert Michael Jeck

- Restored picture and sound

- Original US theatrical trailer

The original release also had the wrong playtime listed. I found 2 of these once at Hollywood Video, paid like $40 a pop and traded one for Hard-Boiled Criterion. Still need to find The Killer.

Bought Silence of the Lambs day 1, went out of print on Day 1 also when the original company put the kibosh on it to re-release it for Hannibal's marketing. Got Dead Ringers, Robocop, M, Brazil, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Charade, The Third Man, Rebecca, etc etc etc. I have most of their OOP titles, Salo is one of the ones I'm missing though - SHALL BE RECTIFIED. Le Samourai I can walk into Fry's and buy though.

Here's a list: http://www.criteriondvd.com/out_of_print.php <- Man of those have gotten re-releases though.

Edit: It looks as though The Killer has become the new 'crown jewel' as it were due to the Salo announcement. But you can't trust buying ANY Criterion disc on the web. Used to be a member of criteriondvd.com back when it was a great forum and picked up the rarer ones through there. Anyway, I would never ever bid on this auction, the colors look off and it's easy to reseal dvds and get the plastic stuff.

Edit 2: It looks like criteriondvd says that SotL was in print for 3 years. Weird how I only saw it on release day and _never_again_.

[schild]

Holy!

May 8, 2008

We’ve got some exciting news for this fall: our first Blu-ray discs are coming! We’ve picked a little over a dozen titles from the collection for Blu-ray treatment, and we’ll begin rolling them out in October. These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and they will be priced to match our standard-def editions.

Here’s what’s in the pipeline:

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

Alongside our DVD and Blu-ray box sets of The Last Emperor, we’ll also be putting out the theatrical version as a stand-alone release in both formats, priced at $39.95. Our Blu-ray release of Walkabout will be an all-new edition, featuring new supplements as well as a new transfer; we will also release an updated anamorphic DVD of Nicolas Roeg’s outback masterpiece at the same time.

Enjoy spring!

CRITERION BLU-RAY

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH GOD YES. 400 BLOWS? MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH? CHUNGKING EXPRESS? YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

[NowhereMan]

I watched Salo when I was about 16, having no real idea what it was about. I started out expecting some sort of WWII era softporn type film (hey I was 16, sounded good) and I was certainly surprised. Never quite sure whether it was better or worse than I expected but it certainly was a film that made an impact. If it's being re-released I'm tempted to get it purely to see what watching it through somewhat more mature eyes brings to the experience.

[stray]

Ah, I see what you're saying. Had no idea criterion stuff went in and out of print like that.

[DraconianOne]

I saw the last 10 minutes of Man Bites Dog in colour once.  It was very interesting.



That was largely due to the copious amounts of hallucinogenics I had taken before going to the theatre though.

[Signe]

I'm beyond a film nerd. I have a minor in Film History.

Edit: And now we know why I'm such a pompous dick about music, video and games. I had a radio show at UMD while I was a fine arts major with a minor in film history while running a gaming website. Gee. What an attractive combination.

And art, don't forget art.  You are also a pompous dick about art.     Those are some of the reasons why we unofficially adopted you!

[MrHat]

Because his dick is pompous?

[Signe]

I bet his dick has it's own theme music!  Let's guess what it is!

I'll guess:  "My Sharona"

[Engels]

As long as its not "We didn't start the fire", I don't care.

[UnSub]

I bet his dick has it's own theme music!  Let's guess what it is!

I'll guess:  "My Sharona"

... he's into young girls? 

[Litigator]

Deepdiscount.com is having a criterion sale by the way. Today is the last day, and most of the movies are out of stock, but they let me apply the deal to backorder.

They sell the $39.99 for $32.99 and the $29.99 for $24.99, but they are doing buy one/get one free on top of that, which means that the $39.99 criterions are about $18 and the $29.99 are about $12.50.

I usually buy Criterions from DVDPlanet, which runs a regular discount of the $39.99 ones to $26.99 and the $29.99 to $19.  These are the cheapest I have ever seen Criterions; probably trying to clear their stock out for Criterion blu-rays.

I think Criterion has gotten pretty obscure lately, but I picked up some Jean-Pierre Melville and the Jules Dassin I was missing.

[DraconianOne]

I bet his dick has it's own theme music!  Let's guess what it is!

I'll guess:  "My Sharona"

Original version by The Knack or the cover version by Polysics?